1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an outer-mirror tilting apparatus that tilts a main body of an outer mirror, and more particularly, to an outer-mirror tilting apparatus integrated with a rod driving mechanism that tilts the main body and a rod detecting mechanism that detects a tilting angle of the main body.
2) Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as an outer mirror to be mounted on a vehicle body of an automobile such as a passenger vehicle, there is one mounted with an outer-mirror tilting apparatus that can adjust a visual field of a main body relative to an outer mirror base from an interior of the vehicle, namely, can tilt the main body. For example, the outer-mirror tilting apparatus is constituted such that a pivot shaft formed in a housing is fitted into a bearing unit formed at a central portion of a holder base to which the main body is fixed so that the holder base is supported to the housing so as to freely tilt relative thereto. In the outer-mirror tilting apparatus, a distal end of a driving rod of a rod driving mechanism is fitted into a driving socket of the holder base. Thereby, the outer-mirror tilting apparatus causes the driving rod to project from/retract into the housing by driving a driving unit of the rod driving mechanism to tilt the main body fixed to the holder base about the bearing unit of the holder base.
The visual field of the main body varies according to a difference in physical constitution of a driver on a vehicle when its tilting angle is constant. Accordingly, when a driver with a different physical constitution drives a vehicle, it is necessary to adjust the visual field of the main body. When the vehicle moves backward, the driver may wish to change the visual field of the main body. In these cases, the driver drives the outer-mirror tilting apparatus from the interior of the vehicle to change the tilting angle of the main body. In view of these circumstances, there is a demand to detect the tilting angle of the main body. Conventionally, there is proposed a technique for fixing, on the outer mirror base or the outer-mirror tilting apparatus, an outer mirror detector that detects a tilting angle of a mirror fixed to the holder base separately of the outer-mirror tilting apparatus.
However, the outer mirror detector is separately fixed to the outer-mirror tilting apparatus independent of the outer-mirror tilting apparatus. Accordingly, since the number of parts constituting the outer mirror that can detect the tilting angle of the main body increases, such a problem as increase in the number of assembling steps or increase in manufacturing cost occurs.